Gaze Patterns to a Speaker's Face in Typically Developing and ASD Children

Gaze Patterns to a Speaker's Face in Typically Developing and ASD Children

Authors: Elician Celine Wartman, Nancy Riccardi, Nancy Rader

To study attention to a speaker in typically developing (TD) children and children with autism (ASD), we tested TD children in three age groups and one group of ASD children. The younger TD children and the ASD children spent less time looking at the speaker than the older TD children. ASD children also spent less time looking at the eyes than the mouth compared to age-similar TD children. These results reveal differences between age-similar TD children and in children with ASD in selective attention to a speaker’s face. The ASD looking pattern was most like that of TD toddlers. Poster Presentation at EPA, Pittsburg, USA, 2012